Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Gravitas Ventures | Release Date: February 13, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 7, 2015
A dizzying hall-of-mirrors stunt, a horror remake as autobiographical X-ray, and a work of fantasy that serves as a decadently cleansing creative exorcism. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 11, 2015
This great-looking, often spellbinding film also shows Lee’s sometimes pervasive theatricality threatening to chomp into the story. But the swirling strangeness of “Sweet Blood” makes it his most mesmerizing work since the underrated “Bamboozled” (2000) and “25th Hour” (2002). Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 14, 2015
For all its loose ends and unanswered practicalities, its wild urgency is thrilling. It defies the expectations fostered by Lee’s prior films; it steps back even as it moves inward. It is, in the modern-classic sense, a late film. Read full review
70
TheWrapJames RocchiFeb 17, 2015
Unrepentant, uneven and unique, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus proves that Lee can still make a film worthy of the arguments it will most certainly start. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJun 25, 2014
Whenever Lee ventures away from the outrageous particulars of the plot, "Da Sweet Blood of Jesus" transforms into a stylish means of exploring contemporary struggles in urban black America by depicting it as a ballet of navigating personal and practical conflicts alike. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartFeb 11, 2015
Scored by Bruce Hornsby, Lee’s film veers all over the place tonally, juxtaposing scenes of spurting gore with soothing jazz. Hess’ WASP-y mansion, with its huge photo portraits of African warriors, is an interesting study in mashing up race and class stereotypes, though the film’s rambling plot may leave your brain feeling a little mashed, too. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 13, 2015
It’s a genre-bending mash-up, a non-vampire vampire movie about class, race, love, and cruelty. It consciously seeks to marry its diverse influences in an attempt to present something between schlock and art house, between passionate gore and urbane chill. It contains multitudes, and not always all that well. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJun 25, 2014
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus isn't entirely successful – and certainly offers few new insights into the nature of addiction – but it remains a welcome change of pace. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleFeb 12, 2015
While this return to indie roots frees up Lee's often gifted image making, his usual pace issues and penchant for jagged flourish over sustained feeling keep it from achieving a rich, strange, sexy and sad whole. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottFeb 12, 2015
It’s not especially horrifying, or even very thought-provoking. It is touching, however, because it represents one frequently misunderstood, intermittently great filmmaker’s tribute to another. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 12, 2015
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is a bold but wildly uneven, bloody mess of a film, sunk in large part by the subpar performances by nearly every major character in nearly every major role. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 11, 2015
A ponderous vampire romance that surely ranks among the writer-director’s most sedate, immobile studies of black life in America. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 10, 2015
Jesus, meanwhile, exhibits all of Lee's weaknesses — clashing tones, careless pacing, the straightest dude's hand-in-pants idea of lesbianism — but also just enough of his might and madness that the Lee-minded shouldn't miss it. Read full review
50
VarietyScott FoundasJun 25, 2014
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is at once too much and yet somehow not enough. On the one hand, it’s exciting to see the always envelope-pushing Lee working without a studio- or distributor-imposed safety net... But while the film never lacks for ambition, it fails to satisfy emotionally or intellectually in the ways Lee intends. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 20, 2015
Never once does the film feel sharp on black identity (as did Bill Gunn’s original), and the terror is theoretical only. Read full review
40
The DissolveNathan RabinFeb 10, 2015
Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is the best kind of failure, impassioned and singular, but it’s a failure all the same— glacially paced, stiffly acted, shapeless, and for the most part tremendously boring. It’s an intriguing idea ruined by the execution. There’s a fine line between hypnotic and somnolent. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJun 25, 2014
As allegory, the picture requires viewers to connect most of the dots without assistance, offering a preachy bit of dialogue once or twice but failing to use action or the camera to say much about non-sanguinary addictions. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 12, 2015
Although Lee briefly engages in some fascinating ideas linking the vampire’s existence to cultural empowerment, preservation and survival, he squanders that potential in leaden soft-core cliches that usually wind up with him ogling the female form. Read full review
33
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJun 25, 2014
Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is, without question, bold, distinct, and idiosyncratic filmmaking with its own voice. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good or in any kind of reasoned key. Read full review
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